Forum held to support Iowa's Harkin

Let the race begin. In conjunction with house parties nationwide celebrating presidential candidate Tom Harkin's 52nd birthday and kicking off his campaign, two University students gave a short presentation Monday night on the Iowa senator. The presentation, which drew 20 students to the Houston Hall room and also served as a recruiting function for the campaign, began with a 10-minute campaign video which presented Harkin as a "courageous maverick," willing to work for ordinary, hardworking Americans. A two-term Iowa senator who served 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Harkin advocates resource economics, wishing to discard supply-side economics and the trickle-down theory. "Let's put [money] at the bottom and let it percolate up for a while," Harkin said in the video. The video also focused on his personal life as a former Navy pilot and family man. The video stated that his greatest accomplishment in Congress was writing the Americans with Disabilities Act. The video ended by indicating that Harkin was running a "grassroots campaign," looking for contributions wherever he could find them. Following the video, forum Co-sponsor and College senior Fred Nemeth continued the upbeat trend of the evening adding that he believes Harkin's fiery nature and willingness to speak his mind will make him appeal to college-age students. Nemeth ended his remarks by asking for monetary donations, stating that a donation of energy and time in the campaign would be well appreciated, but that Harkin's campaign relies heavily on small contributions. The majority of the 20 students at the forum said they wanted to get some information on Harkin in order to begin assessing their choices in the upcoming primaries. "Democratic candidates are having a difficult time differentiating themselves from each other," said Penn Political Union member and College senior John Bertland.

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